for 20 years, reporting on the business of the computer-aided design industry

Monday, May 08, 2017

Onshape at Age 2

Issue #938

by Ralph Grabowski

Onshape is currently the golden boy of the CAD world. They have the mindshare. And so other CAD vendors are finding ways to reflect some of that Onshape glow onto themselves -- if not seeing the upstart as a clear and present danger to their future existence.

(By mindshare, I mean that the software is often named, or compared to, at conferences and in press releases. People in our industry want to be associated with it. The Onshape name occupies our minds.)

On the happy side we have organizations like Graebert and Open Design Alliance who are working with Onshape directly; on the other, we see people like now ex-Autodesk-ceo Carl Bass welcoming Onshape the day it emerged out of beta by blasting his new competitor in the official Autodesk blog: statements by Onshape execs were "hyperbolic and misleading," he fumed <http://inthefold.autodesk.com/in_the_fold/2015/03/setting-the-record-straight.html>.

The reason for the joy -- and the trembling -- is due to that US$169-million war chest Onshape accumulated from investors. More of the trepidation stems from the mere two years Onshape took to successfully produce a working MCAD program that actually doesn't care about the desktop. It runs purely in a browser, something that most competitors have failed to pull off, even with some working on the problem for a decade now (c.f. Solidworks Envoia 6).

Onshape is, however, not the first; Alibre did the same thing back in 2000, but the Internet infrastructure of the day couldn't support something as graphics-heavy as MCAD. It was gaming that pushed Web standards committees to add interactivity between servers and browsers, and so we have something like Onshape that works well.

March 9 was Onshape's second birthday, and fifth year since it was conceived.

How Onshape Works

To run the Onshape MCAD system for the first time, I opened a Web browser to www.onshape.com and then clicked Register. I signed up and then waited a few moments as the MCAD system loaded; once ready, it waited for me to do something. (See figure 1.) Now that I was registered, I used my sign-in to run Onshape on any other computer with a Web browser and an Internet connection -- whether a Chromebook, Linux box, MacOS laptop, or Windows machine.

Figure 1Start screen of Onshape offering assembly and parts tabs

It is truly independent of the operating system. The only catches are that the Web browser has to be supported by Onshape (as most modern ones do), and that the Internet connection speed has to be reasonable. Onshape needs a modern browser because it runs the HTML5 and Java code needed to display, interact with, and refresh CAD models -- older browsers can't do this. While I can run Onshape in a browser on Android or iOS devices, the company has written apps specific to these two operating systems. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2Onshape app running on an Android tablet

Onshape doesn't work with "drawings" or "models," but uses the more general term "documents" to emphasize that a drawing isn't limited to 2D or 3D views, such as in AutoCAD's Layout and Model modes (aka tabs). An Onshape document has as many tabs as I need, each storing any kind of information: individual parts (each in its own tab), different versions of assemblies, drawing layouts (aka generated drawings), renderings, raster images, PDFs, and other documents useful for design jobs. With some exceptions, each different kind of data has to be in its own tab, although Onshape recently showed 3D models and 2D plans of sheet metal designs in a single tab.

"If you like your software, you can't keep your software," to misquote a former president. A drawback to cloud software is that the software vendor can add, change, and remove functions at will, and I have no say in the matter. I can't freeze a release, as I can with desktop software. While continual updates are marketed at us as a good thing (when it involves new and improved functions), it also involves deprecation.

Here's one example of deprecation: When in 2015 Onshape first launched, I could work on up to five drawings privately, for free; for a while, Onshape increased the number to six; now it's down to zero. What this means is that anything I draw with Onshape is seen by all other registered users; the limitation goes away when I pay the monthly fee. Onshape originally touted the privacy as a way for hobbyists to document patents for free; now they can't.

On the other hand, Onshape has lowered its price from $125 monthly to $100, but has not yet matched Autodesk's $25/month fee for Fusion. As is pretty much standard now in the CAD industry, the full software is free to students and teachers -- documents are tagged with an EDU label.

Third-party Add-ons

The two big additions since I last wrote about Onshape are add-ons and programming. Onshape hosts a online app store at https://appstore.onshape.com. (See figure 3.) Add-ons include exporter-importers, 3D printing assistance, renderers, analyzers, and BOMs. I counted just under 50 of them. Some are free, others are free to try; Onshape handles the billing, making it part of your monthly invoice.

Desktop means the add-on has a link between Onshape and the desktop program

I found installing an add-on as easy as using Apple's app store, initially: choose an app, and then click Free or Buy. I chose a rendering add-on still in beta, so it was free. But then I found things got complicated. Just like the Apple store, Onshape asked for my password, even for free stuff (grrr!). To use the new add-on, I clicked Onshape's + menu, selected Add Application, and then chose the name of the add-on. It opened in its own tab, but then Onshape asked in Google-like fashion if I wanted to let the add-on access my account.

With the paperwork out of the way, rendering took longer than I expected on a simple 3D part, partly because I had to wait for the remote renderer to wake up. After I chose a 3D model and checked off some options, Onshape shipped the model data to the render server, and a few moments later the image appeared in my browser. No knock on Onshape, as I've found other online rendering systems can also be a lengthy process.

FeatureScript

The programmers at Onshape made public last June their FeatureScript programming language. I could use it if I wanted to macro-ize repetitive actions or write functions that manipulate geometry -- things Onshape hasn't implemented, kind of like what AutoLISP is good at. As it turns out, Onshape's geometric functions were all built with FeatureScript, and the company released the code library at https://www.onshape.com/featurescript. Like my drawings, the code I write can be shared with other Onshape users, and I can see what they've written, in case they've done something I find useful.

To use FeatureScript, I click the Add Custom Features icon on Onshape's toolbar, and then choose a program to run -- or start writing a new one. The programming editor opens in a new browser window. (See figure 4.)

Onshape's Corporate Tactics

At a conference in Berlin, Bob Miner of Onshape R&D described his company's tactic to move from a startup to a mature MCAD package: by being agile, by releasing new code every 3-4 weeks -- 18 updates a year. Being cloud-based means I never download and install any updates: they are just there the next time I start the program in my browser. (The Android and iOS apps are, however, updated with downloads and installs.) I found, sadly, that Onshape doesn't highlight changes, so I don't know what's new until I visit the company's blog.

At the time I was writing this, Onshape released a new function that edits parts in the context of the assembly. This is not new for old-timer MCAD systems, but shows why Onshape needs to release new functions often and quickly.

In a twist from traditional CAD systems, however, Onshape built-in collaboration and version control from the beginning, even before the first beta was released. Collaborating is as easy as with Goggle Docs: I send to other engineers a link to the document and specify the level of access, such as view- only or full editing rights. When I branch off changes to parts and assemblies, Onshape tracks the divergent paths with version control in the global document. Desktop MCAD systems usually charge extra for add-ons that do this work.

What Ralph Grabowski Thinks

Onshape is a very privately-held company. We don't know how well Onshape is doing, such as how many users it has. It speaks of tens of thousands of users. We don't know how quickly it is burning through investment funds; that $169 million of funding generates $4 million a year in interest, so it could coast for quite some time. On the other hand, the investors want their money back with a sizable bonus. Some arithmetic shows the company needs 36,600 customers to pay back the $169 million with a 30% bonus after five years.

In a way, these metrics don't matter, for Onshape already has cemented its place in history as redefining what is possible with cloud-based MCAD. After two years, however, Onshape in my opinion looks more like the next SpaceClaim than the next AutoCAD. By "SpaceClaim," I mean new software that occupied overwhelming mindshare in our industry but in the end signed up just 30,000 customers. By "AutoCAD,." I mean new software that took on huge mindshare AND signed up millions of customers.

I can't tell you if browser-based Onshape is a better way to draw and edit models. Functions like FeatureScript and the version control system may well be compelling enough for you to adopt it. That's for you to figure out. The good news is that all functions are free to try out, forever, with no 30-day limit. As for me, I prefer the instant response of a CAD system that runs on the desktop. I pay once. After that, I get to use it free forever. I determine the update schedule. All my drawings are private.

[This article first appeared in Design Engineering magazine and has been edited for republication.]

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Bricsys Invites the Media to Belgium

To fully explain [the point I made in your article], BricsCAD has an interface similar to that of AutoCAD 2007. Now Bricsys are trying to do BIM and SpaceClaim V2 within a package that has an interface designed for 2D drawings. This is quite simply wrong.

In fact, Bricsys is not only replicating AutoCAD, they are also replicating the same product evolution errors that Autodesk made. It took a very long time for Autodesk to realize that you can't morph one product, one code stream, and interface into a one-size-fits-all program for drawing, like MCAD modeling and BIM.

Especially where BIM and MCAD are concerned, designing in 2D is not the driver, it's about modeling in 3D. The old AutoCAD ribbon interface for these 3D design functions is just pain wrong. - Martyn Day, editor AEC Magazine, England

The announcement [that Autodesk sold Pixlr] is a bit strange considering the fact that Autodesk just purchased Rovio which I find it hard to consider as a part of focusing on Autodesk's "core portfolio". - P.

The editor replies: The purchase of Rovio was an April Fools Joke, I am sorry to tell you!

- - -

I'm an old AutoCAD user and developer, and now have a need to revisit the CAD world again to take advantage of the widespread use of 3D in mechanical CAD. I stumbled on BricsCAD and was pleasantly surprised to come across your name on tutorials and documentation. You have been writing things about CAD for a long time!

I will probably go ahead with getting involved with BricsCAD as it feels a little like the early days of CAD and desktop publishing. Then, getting stuff printed was revolutionized by PostScript. Now, high quality 3D CAD is coming within reach of the ordinary engineer. (You really don't need Catia to do this work now.) There's a fresh wind blowing again...

Thank you for producing Inside BricsCAD. Working through it was a good way for me to learn new things. - David Australia

Re: Definition of Private Cloud

For me, the only difference between a private and public cloud is where the data lives:

In a public cloud, data is hosted in the service's data centers

In a private cloud, it's an organization-controlled data center

Best example I can think of is Azure, which can be run in a Microsoft data centre or an Azure server located within the organization's network. Other than access, it is identical with multiple organizations accessing data, the key distinction being control of where that data lives. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/reference-architectures/ - Robin Capper, store design technical manager The Warehouse Limited, New Zealand

Re: CAM for Solidworks

The "new" CAM software from Solidworks, called Solidworks CAM, is in fact CAMWorks. CAMWorks has been a gold partner for Solidworks for over 20 years, and has always been fully integrated within Solidworks 3D CAD. This is a very exciting partnership between Dassault Systems, Solidworks Corporation, and HCL Technologies to allow more people access to world-class CAM software. With this partnership both companies are working hard to make a great product, CAMWorks, even better, making big improvements to the user interface and improving ease of use and functionality.Given that I am a reseller employee, it might be good to source me as an anonymous tipster. - Name withheld by request

The editor replies: The analysts are cautious, because they have not yet seen these new printers in action.

Re: Autodesk Release Quality

Although AutoCAD 2017 was a major release in name, the number of new features in this version was probably the least of any major version, ever.

But calling 2017.1 a "major release"? Sure there was some new functionality there [such as converting PDFs to DWGs], but Autodesk turned around and claimed many of those items as new in 2018. How can a feature be NEW in two different versions?

I still cannot figure out who is converting so many PDF files back into inaccurate CAD drawings? Where is the original CAD drawing, from which the PDF was created? Like some of the other new functionality, this too has a limited audience. - R.K. McSwain (via WorldCAD Access) CAD Panacea

The editor replies: My opinion is that Autodesk has a few programmers working on AutoCAD as they try to get an Onshape-like version of AutoCAD up on running on the cloud, a project that appears to be running a few years late.

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